Beastie Boys Step It Up with ‘The Mix-Up’

Our beloved NYC faves, the Beastie Boys, are bringing fans a whole new experience with 'The Mix-Up,' a full-length instrumental record to be released on June 26.

Thanks to our friends at Nasty (as in 'Hello Nasty'), I got to talk to Mike D about the new album and the group's upcoming tour. He tells me that they plan to release a second version of 'The Mix-Up' later down the line, which will include vocal collaborations with other artists and remixes with a wish list of producers.

PopEater: Can you tell us who you might be doing collaborations with?

Mike D: We just made our list so we have to see who says yes and who likes us and who hates us.

PE: Who's on the list? Give me your top three.

MD: It's tricky because we have producers and performers on there, but we have M.I.A. We're big fans of hers. She's on the A-list. Mark Ronson is hopefully doing something with somebody, but I'm not at liberty to say because that's up to him. We played some shows in Australia with Snoop Dogg and we had a very nice time with him so we're hoping to do some stuff with him some time.

NC: I heard you're playing two shows per town on your upcoming tour.

MD: The idea was that in certain cities, certain select gala cities, we're going to do a slightly bigger show that's more like our usual show. We'd be playing a lot of hip-hop and also some [instrumental] songs and mixing it all up. And then, if we have time, in the same city, [we'd] play a smaller place like a little theater and play a show that's mostly like the flip of that that's mostly instrumental.

In a word: awesome. How you feel about the Beastie Boys playing an instrumental set? Tell us what artists you'd like to see featured on the next incarnation of 'The Mix Up.' Who knows? The B-Boys just might be reading your suggestions.